Could drinking coffee help you live longer?

While coffee is know to contain compounds that interact with the body such as caffeine, diterpenes and antioxidants, the researchers say further research is needed pin down which ones in particular offer these apparent health benefits, along with how much would actually be a healthy amount to consume.

The people who consumed a cup of coffee a day were 12 percent less likely to die as compared to those who didn't drinkcoffee.

The top 25% of coffee drinkers in the study had three or more cups a day.

Lichtenstein agreed with that remark and said that the overall results of the studies can be caused because people who drinkcoffee often refuse other drinks with a lot of calories, such as apple juice. Three cups of coffee reduced the risk by 18 percent, according to The Telegraph.

The editorial instead notes at a takeaway that moderate daily coffee intake "is not associated with adverse health effects in adults and can be incorporated into a healthy diet".

Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, from the University of Cambridge, analyses the public understanding of risk and says that if the estimated reductions in death really were down to coffee, then an extra cup of coffee every day would extend the life of a man by around three months and a woman by around a month on average. It is still unclear which particular compounds provide health benefits, but Gunter said he would be interested in exploring this further.

The study does have limitations, and the researchers were not able to pinpoint a causal relationship, or why coffee appears to have these health benefits. Specifically, 17 percent of the participants were African-American, 29 percent Japanese-Americans, 22 percent Latinos, 25 percent whites, and 7 percent Native Hawaiians.

The results don't necessarily mean coffee directly prevents people from dying, but researchers suggest they should at least reassure people who can't get by without their daily cup of joe. It found advantages to longevity if the coffee was caffeinated or decaffeinated.

Drinking three cups of coffee a day could help you live longer, two major scientific studies have shown. Both values were obtained when comparing their risks to those of coffee non-drinkers. But if you enjoy a cup of coffee everyday, you might want thank your barista (or your coffee machine): It's a habit that could, in the long run, save your life.

Prof Peter Hayes, part of the University of Edinburgh team, said: "We have shown coffee reduces cirrhosis and also liver cancer in a dose-dependent manner".

People in Denmark drink larger quantities of coffee than Italians who drink smaller and stronger drinks like espresso, for example.

"As there were lots of different analyses for different causes of death and for men and women separately, the risk of finding false positive results is increased", the Science Media Centre in the United Kingdom noted.